Yona Yona Penguin is a new full length feature film produced by Japanese and French creators. The famed anime studio Madhouse, teamed up with Frenchman Denis Friedman and his production company to work on the film. The movie had its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 12, and most recently, the first Japanese screening took place at the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 19. Yona Yona Penguin is set to hit Japanese theaters in late December of this year.

3D Penguins invade the big screen in Japan

Japanese audiences will be treated to a truly delightful and charming film this holiday season, with the official theatrical release of Yona Yona Penguin. Rintaro, known for his work on anime films like Metropolis and Galaxy Express 999, is the director for this Japanese and French co-production. Denis Friedman, a French producer whose resume includes Kaena: The Prophecy and Fears of the Dark, also lent his talents to the film.

The main character, Coco, in her makeshift penguin costume, is such an endearing sight to behold. She is a female lead that will appeal to both children and adults alike. Visually, Yona Yona Penguin has a very wide appeal to it, and hopefully it will see some sort of international release in the future. It would be a shame to see a movie like this, limited to only film festival screenings ouside of Japan.

With the film’s Japanese release only weeks away, a couple of official trailers have begun to surface on the web. FFOmake has included one of the trailers below. Please enjoy!

Yona Yona Penguin Trailer

Everybody do the Yona Yona!

Would any animated film be complete without the obligatory song and dance? Well the producers of Yona Yona Penguin, most definitely think not! A theme song single CD for the movie was released in Japan on September 25. The CD included the main theme song, as well as image songs, for a total of 5 tracks.

To accompany the release of this album, caricatures of Coco doing the Yona Yona Penguin dance were released to ease the suffering of the masses.

If the caricature based instructions did not provide enough detail about how one could get their Yona Yona on! An elaborate instructional video was released, which takes you through all the steps of the dance. It is truly amazing how creative the Japanese get, when it comes to product promotion and media tie-ins.